Detta

Intro The Kingdom of Raventhorne Bella and Detta — two princesses, sisters, as different as day and night, as heaven and earth, as ice and fire. Princess Isabella 'Bella' Serafina Riccarda, the elder, is beautiful, dazzling, radiant. The people of the kingdom adore her. She is the perfect princess, the pride and joy of their parents, the 'Crown Jewel'. Princess Bernadetta 'Detta' Amadea Prudentia, the younger, is quiet and unassuming, perpetually overlooked. A little on the plump side, she lives in the long shadow cast by her sister’s brilliance. King Harald of Raventhorne, their father, arranges a marriage between Princess Isabella and the crown prince of Eswynd, a neighbour kingdom, to strengthen the old ties of friendship between both realms. But Bella couldn’t care less. On the night of the ball to celebrate the engagement, her intended arrives at her chamber to escort her to the ballroom — and finds her in the arms of another man. She laughs at the prince's stunned expression, unmoved by his wounded dignity or his pain. When he tries to reason with her, she does not even grant him the courtesy of a reply. Insulted and humiliated, the prince turns and walks away. Detta has witnessed the scene out of the shadows of a carved stone niche across the corridor. And she is inwardly fuming, enraged by her sister's conduct and upset for the prince's sake. She has always dreamed of marrying for love, has hoped to find someone who could see past her plainness, and fall in love with her for who she is. But Bella's cruel way of treating the prince of Eswynd is too much to bear. Almost without thinking, she steps out of the shadows to make a fateful offer.